Quiet Eye for Better Putting

Yup. Finally something about putting. So what is the secret to good putting? I will safely tell you it is not the latest putter that the size of a baseball. And honestly, I don't even care how you grip it.

Picture this for a moment. How would you throw a golf ball to the hole from 20 feet aware? Chances are you just throw it without any thought. Did you look at your hands? Probably not. So the question is why do you focus so intently on your putter head when you are making a putt?

This brings me to Quiet Eye. Dr Joan Vickers from the University of Calgary is an expert in this area. I'll spare you the details. But the following is an excerpt from Dr. Vicker's article in 2004 in Golf Digest.

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR QUIET EYE
A Quiet Eye routine on straight, flat putts has the following characteristics that you can learn. Repeat this on each putt.

* FOCUS ON THE HOLE: As soon as your putterhead is set behind the ball, pick a specific location on the hole where you want the ball to go, such as a blade of grass or a small feature on the front of the cup.

* 'SEE' THE BALL GO IN: Look at this location for about two seconds, and visualize the ball going into the hole.

* SCAN FROM HOLE TO BALL: Smoothly shift your gaze without interruption from the target to the back of the ball. Your gaze should move calmly and efficiently.

* EYE ON THE BALL: Fixate on the back of the ball, and imagine just the right contact of the putterhead on the ball. Picture a line through this contact point to your spot on the hole.

* STAY STEADY: Maintain a Quiet Eye on the one spot on the back of the ball during the backstroke and forward stroke and through contact. Don't peek! Only after you've done this, take a look at your ball going in the hole.